Archive for August, 2010

With its cobblestone side streets, preserved buildings and revolutionary monuments on almost every corner, Philadelphia is certainly a historical treasure. And like any beautiful old city, Philadelphia is prime hunting ground for beautiful collections of old things, especially if one knows where to look.

If you’re antiquing in Philadelphia, head first to Chestnut Hill, just to the north of center city. Germantown Ave, marked by streetcar tracks, runs down the middle of this quiet leafy neighborhood lined with the awnings of bakeries, toy stores, and a locally famous cheese shop. This is a place where bells jingle when you push open shop doors that have clearly stood on their thresholds for generations, if not centuries.

The entire neighborhood speaks to the best of authentic high-end shabby chic—Even private homes blocks from Germantown Ave display a mesmerizing combination of age and Philadelphia grace, with elegantly peeling Victorian window frames and vine-tangled garden gates. Try to open an antiques shop here and you’d better be able to keep up with customers who know exactly what they’re looking for and can afford it when they see it.

Strolling westward from Abington Ave, stop first in Lavender Hill, owned by Florence Maloumian. Simple and lovely paintings from the rural Catskills, refinished Eastlake Victorian furniture, and the signature pieces in the store—collections of dried and silk flowers in playful color combinations– draw the eye to every corner of Lavender Hills’ artistically cluttered space.

Next stop in at Garden Gate Antiques, a multi-owner shop a few doors down. Make a note of the authentic African pieces in the back corner, including statuary from Malawi and a curious Sowei mask “for women’s initiation.” Run by a husband and wife team of passionate African art collectors, this section of the store features masks and textiles at marked down prices for the rest of the summer.

Move next to George Hoby’s shop where a wall-mounted bighorn sheep gazes out over a collection of odds and their corresponding ends arranged in layers so dense you’ll want to slow your gander so as not to miss anything. Hoby himself presides from the back of the store in a chair that I spent some time studying (not for sale apparently, though I doubt I could afford it if it was). The space is a bit too small for an extensive furniture collection, but features watercolors by Abraham Hankins, ceramics, and everything from old flutes, to girly art-deco ads, to salt and pepper shakers. Hoby’s easy style makes the room a pleasant place to linger for a while.

And finally, no antiquing day in Chestnut Hill is complete without a look into the Antiques Gallery. This shop is representative of the neighborhood in many ways, but it’s best to know your own preferences here, since there’s a lot to see and the store sometimes keeps non-standard hours.

While strolling and perusing, examine the unbelievable collection of maps and historic prints at the map store. Take a break for coffee at Cake or the bakery across from the toy store, and don’t miss the cheese shop. Years ago, the owners of this place offered me a taste of Papillion French blue cheese that changed my life. Chestnut Hill tends to make an afternoon of antiques shopping into a complete experience– Take advantage of the tendency, especially if you’re only in town for a day or two.

There are a few common reasons why people choose to sell antiques. Each reason comes with its own set of solutions.

Scenario 1:

You’re a collector and you like to cull your collection now and then. This keeps the process interesting and keeps excess clutter from taking over your life.

Details: You know what your items are worth. After all, you’ve been collecting these gizmos for years and you have an eye for provenance.

Solutions:

Your sources may function as outlets. If you spend a lot of time at the model train store talking to the proprietor, find out if he or she will make you an offer. This kind of transaction builds bonds with other collectors, legitimizes the enterprise (whatever it happens to be), and keeps our weird little communities strong. You may also find a fair price here, not to mention a good home for your lovables.

Find an online or print community resource, and see if the publishers will let you post an ad.

Find an online auction site that specializes in your items.

Try to avoid generic outlets like pawn shops or flea markets where buyer knowledge may be broad but not deep. If you have something special, knowledgeable buyers may line up for it, while outsiders may have to be convinced of its worth. For better offers, find the former.

Scenario 2:

You’ve just inherited something, or you’re emptying the house of a relative who’s moving or downsizing, and you’re surrounded by items (tin toys, china plates) that you don’t want but suspect are valuable.

Details: You have no idea what these items are worth. You also may be pressed for time.

Solutions:

Find antiques shops and dealers in your area who can come to your location, view the items, and make you an offer. An additional benefit: Whoever buys the items will also haul them away.

An auction in the home may be an option. Find a dealer who will come to you. The dealer will take a percentage of the proceeds, so if you organize and advertise the sale yourself, you might save money. But you may lose, too—Dealers have contacts among specific antiques communities, whereas the audience you draw on your own may be too general to appreciate the value of your items.

Scenario 3:

You have an item, and you would like to take it somewhere, leave it behind, and walk away with money. An episode of Antiques Roadshow has you eyeing the pottery bowl in your cabinet that has no sentimental value to you, and if you can find that mysterious “auction” those appraisers are always talking about, you’d like to dump the bowl and collect your millions.

Solution:

First, don’t rush. What your item is worth today it will be worth tomorrow. If you really do have a treasure on your hands, get several appraisals from reliable dealers before you commit to selling. Then:

Research antiques auctions taking place in your area and find out how to get your item on the block. (This site is an excellent resource.)

Museums may also have an interest in your piece. Make some calls and find out.

Preview Sunday September 19th from 12 PM to 5 PM
Monday, September 20th from 9 AM to 5 PM
Tuesday, September 21st from 9 AM

On Monday at 12 PM, we will sell 185 lots from a single owner collection of Venetian and other European glass, 41 pcs Gouda pottery, 200 plus pcs of Delft and other Dutch/Continental pottery, to be sold singly and in lots! Also a small collection of above average floral and scenic early 20th c European porcelain by various Limoges, Austrian, German, Czech, and other factories, plus a small but nice collection of Victorian art glass. About 250 lots in total for Monday afternoon!!

These 2 machines are from a collection of about 50 music boxes in all featuring 2 other Regina uprights, 8 Regina tabletop machines, Swiss cylinder music boxes, some with interchangeable cylinders, paper roller and cob organs, Edison cylinder record players, clocks, and ond other mechanical stuff!!

Featured lot in our April 13, 2010 catalog sale.

Lot 276
Robert Aitken, printer; The Holy Bible, Containing the Old and New Testaments: Newly translated out of the Original Tongues; and with the former Translations Diligently compared and revised. Philadelphia: Robert Aitken, 1781-82. 2 parts in one volume, 12mo.
Said to be more rare than the Gutenburg Bible!

It’s no mystery that antiques are the biggest “green” thing going. It’s not like antique enthusiasts are jumping on the “green” wagon either. We were “green” long before it was the cool thing to be.

But the latest hip trend I see is antiquer’s taking what we call “findings” which are pieces of antique or vintage items (not the entire thing) and resourcing them. In short, we are recycling recycled items!

How does one do that? I’ll give you a few examples:

Rice grain bags – currently very hot in the Southern market. What does one do with them? Covering antique chairs, or making pillows for the couch with them. They are so popular, that Restoration Hardware has caught on and is selling reproduction pillows.

Jewelry – I’ve seen jewelry artists taking lone earrings, single shoe clips, buttons, etc and adorning jackets with them, or creating necklaces with the older pieces as pendants or parts.

Photographers are taking cool old painting frames and using them to showcase great black and white photography.

I remember the first time I saw something like this was several years back when I saw typewriter keys being used to create names on a necklace.

Then it was mahjong tiles incorporated into bracelets; vintage bottle caps used to embellish purses…

I have also met dealers that specialize in “found” objects. Interior decorators have been recycling antiques for years. Take a look at how interior designer Kelly Giesen works with vintage doors, hardware and mixes vintage lighting with traditional:

I’d love to hear your suggestions on making old new again. Tell us about it here!

As a writer and a lover of quirky old machinery, there are few collectible antiques more fascinating to me than typewriters. I even love the word “typewriter,” with its punched-out mechanical consonants and its utter obsolescence. My love affair began when my grandparents bequeathed their old machines to me, assuming I could find some use for them in my line of work. I don’t actually use any of my typewriters, but I do gaze at them, and I do carry them (all 130 fragile pounds of them—my Royal weighs more than my dog) from one house to another every time I move.

Over the years I’ve been asked many questions about typewriters, specifically about the value of old machines that arrived in the questioner’s life the same way mine did. It seems as if every day a dusty Remington or Smith Brothers machine is unearthed in a basement and handed over to the nearest writer in the family. I have good news and bad news about this. But first, a little history.

A Short History of the Typewriting Machine, With Anatomy Lesson.

There are two forms of what we call the “typewriter”: The index and the keyboard. The index is a primitive little device that looks like a wheel mounted on a board. It appeared at the end of the 1800’s but was quickly made obsolete by the keyboard, which is somewhat more recognizable. The first successful keyboard typewriter was designed and sold in 1873 by Sholes and Glidden.

The next century brought us two versions of keyboard machine:

The Typebar: In this version, a pressed letter key swings a bar with a molded typeface toward a waiting paper surface. The typeface is either inked by a rollbar, or it collides with an inked ribbon that lies between itself and the paper. Most machines made between 1874 and 1960, despite their fantastic variety, operate by some version of this method.

The Single Element: In this version, all type exists on a drum or ball element and when a key is pressed, the whole element swings around to present the desired type to the paper. This version was popularized in 1960 by the IBM Selectic. Its arrival heralded (to my way of thinking) the end of the typewriter’s golden age.

The strangest and most beautiful typewriter models are the earliest, the ones introduced between 1874 and 1915. These are known as “unconventional”.

In 1895, Underwood designed the first “conventional” model: Four rows of keys, a single shift, ribbon inking, and a front strike type bar. After 1895, conventional models became the norm, and by the 1930s almost all typewriter models looked more or less the same.

Between 1874 (the beginning) and 1960 (the end), typewriters had a fantastic run. Especially during the early years, they symbolized all of the reckless innovative exuberance of the industrial revolution, standing on a perfect overlay between business efficiency and mechanical whimsy.

Collectible Typewriters

Despite their beauty, typewriters have some quirks that set them apart from other memorabilia and collectibles. For one thing, nobody throws typewriters away. So of the millions of Royal and Smith Corona machines produced in the earlier half of the century, most are still in circulation and are surprisingly well cared for. So they are not rare, not usually.

But:

The world of typewriter collecting is like the wild west right now. There are no catalogue values or price guides as there are with collectable dolls or collectable baseball cards. The value of each machine lies only in the opinion of the buyer and seller. The wild frontiers of antiques collecting are always tamed eventually– In this case, nobody is sure why it’s taking so long.

This doesn’t apply to typewriters made before 1915. If you own any of these beautiful typewriters, your model is rare and it is certainly valuable, depending on whom you ask: